Sources for photos and engravings appearing in the Bach montage:

Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March 1685 -30 July 1746)
Detail of 1746 E.G. Haussmann portrait of which Bach thought highly.
Photo provided by Ost und Europa Photo, Cologne; reproduced in Hanns Dieter Wohlfarth's Johann Sebastian Bach, 1984 Fortress Press edition.

"Music owes as much to Bach as a religion to its founder," the romantic-era composer Robert Schumann wrote of him. Yet this impoverished church organist (handsomely paid in comparison with other church organists, yet forever struggling to make ends meet, which says a lot about the lot of Lutheran church organists in provincial post-Reformation Germany) was unknown to the public at large until Felix Mendelssohn focussed attention upon Bach's works some eighty years after Bach's death with his revival of St. Matthew Passion. Fortunately, insiders in the European music world were never in ignorance of the value of Bach's innovative harmonic breakthroughs, dynamically interwoven polyphonic textures, and mastery of counterpoint. Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin eagerly studied Bach well before the 1829 performance.

Lüneburg Heath (with sheep barn)
Welcome to Germany booklet, German National Tourist Office (122 East 42nd St, 52nd floor, New York, NY 10168-0072)

14-year-old Bach would have passed this way, if not this particular sheep barn, during his famous 200-mile trek from Ohrdruf, in what is now Thuringia in central Germany, to Lüneburg, which is near Hamburg in the north. Sebastian and another youth undertook the journey in hopes of being accepted as musicians and students at St. Michael's. It appears a risky venture, leaving the security of his brother's home and walking such a distance for so uncertain an outcome. But it brought unexpected rewards. Not only did they receive the scholarships they sought (in a city within much easier walking distance of Hamburg, the center of German opera), they escaped the epidemic which killed many in Ohrdruf - including Sebastian's brother.

Mühlhausen Organ, St. Blasius Church
Photo provided by Ost und Europa Photo, Cologne; reproduced in Hanns Dieter Wohlfarth's Johann Sebastian Bach, 1984 Fortress Press edition.

Early in his career, Bach established himself as organ expert and expert organist, as demonstrated by his relationship with this St. Blasius instrument. When it was brand-new in 1703, the 18-year-old Sebastian was sought out by the builder to test and approve it. A few years later his performance upon it as church organist so astounded the congregation that they did the unheard-of: they significantly increased the church organist's salary, and saw to it that works he composed for special occasions, such as Gott ist mein König, were published. (They of course reverted to business as usual after he left. His successors, as had his predecessors, enjoyed no such special treatment.) When he presented innovative designs for improving the organ, they readily agreed to have it rebuilt according to his instructions.

St. Thomas Choir in front of Bach memorial at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig
Photo provided by Ost und Europa Photo, Cologne; reproduced in Hanns Dieter Wohlfarth's Johann Sebastian Bach, 1984 Fortress Press edition.

Among Bach's many gifts was that for rubbing people the wrong way. This descendent of Veit Bach would fight back. He would have his way as music director of St. Thomas Church. And the members of the Leipzig Council, which administered and financed the Leipzig churches, would have theirs. His concerns were for music and God. But theirs were for budget, which so often in matters of religion and art is considered the ultimate authority. They tried to treat him as though he were dead before he actually was - although he demonstrated quite convincingly how much life he had left when they tried to replace him preposthumously. And once he was dead, they tried their best to keep him that way. But his legacy outlived them all. Another famous resident of Leipzig, Felix Mendelssohn, the most influential musician of his day, so publicized Bach's importance that even Leipzig could no longer ignore it. Everyone points to the statue the city of Leipzig erected in the 1840's, the one appearing in the photo. But the honor of greatest importance to Bach is reflected in the choir boys of St. Thomas Church who pose before it. How numerous they are, how properly nourished and superbly trained! It may have taken several hundred years - or at least the ninety from 1750 to 1840 - but in the war of Bach vs. Leipzig, Bach got his way at last.

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